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Buffalo Bones
Tom wrote:
Actually took time to sit and watch a 1960 John Ford movie yesterday -- Sargent Rutledge. It was a good western, even though it ended with the kind of "Freud Does Hollywood" resolution so common in the early 60s. BUT -- I picked up a piece of trivia and wanted to pass it on.
We have probably all heard of the American Indians (if necessary, please insert the term of your preference here: __________) referring to the US Calvary as "Buffalo Soldiers." I always assumed it was because they held them responsible for killing the buffalo. But, according to the movie, the Plains Indians first saw the Calvary during the winter. The solders were all bundled up in buffalo fur coats and hats, trying to keep warm. The natives dubbed the soldiers "Buffalo Soldiers" because of their appearance and the name stuck.
And who sez watching Westerns ain't educational????
Y'all have a wonderful week!
Fred Replied:
They also called the Black Regiment "Buffalo Soldiers" because of the way their 'scalp' felt and the dark skin. Buffalos have dark skin underneath all of that wooly hair.
There is only one kind of Buffalo left now. There were once two species--a plains buffalo and a woods buffalo. The plains buffalo was light brown and longer and thinner and could really run pretty fast. The woods buffalo was darker and bigger and was a slow grazer since they rarely left wooded areas in Canada. However since the plains buffalo was decimated by the Army and by hunters, the few that remained hid in the woods and eventually "mixed". Now we have the "hybrid" buffalo.
There are only mercury on glass photos of the woods buffalo. There are many photos of various processes of the plains buffalo.
When I was a kid in Kansas, we used to hike along the RR tracks going south out of Junction City. The RR sort of followed the "Katy" RR. At one point it crossed the Smokey Hill River, a meandering river in the Flint Hills Basin going thru Geary County and terminating where the Republican R. out of Nebraska meets the Kaw R. (Hence Junction City--the junction of the two rivers. The Kaw R. is now called the Kansas River. I guess the Kaws were only a minor tribe and the Kansas tribe was much larger. Democratic process in action in Topeka. Them with the most--win.
One of the small cricks that fed the Smokey had flooded in 1948 and caused a "cut bank". Some old bones showed thru the clay and loam. We found out that this was one of the sites that Buffalo "Bones" Bill used. He would take a wagon and team and go out onto the vast Kansas flatlands and gather up the whitening bones left by the "skinners". He would pile them in huge piles in certain selected locations.
He was considered crazy by the locals. Within about 5 years the RR started building. He must have had either inside information or he was a canny railroad engineer out of work. When the RR came thru all over that part of the plains--his buffalo bones were there waiting to be loaded onto railroad cars and sold back east. He became very wealthy and retired in New York City.
In 1947 a fellow named Carlson hired me and my buddy, Dale Hanold, to load bones. During WW 2 garbage fed hogs were allowed to be sold to the Army. It is against the law in ALL states to sell garbage fed hog meat in the US and has been for over 30 years.
Ft. Riley was right next to Junction City. They fed thousands of soldiers pork chops and ham during 4 years of training at the fort. Hog ranchers around Junction sold pork meat to the fort and then collected the garbage for a small fee from the Army.
They then re-cycled the garbage thru the hogs and sold the meat back to the Army. When the war was over most of the troops at the fort were discharged and many officers were RIFed and transferred. The ranchers went back to raising wheat. The bones lay 'moldering in the ground' for a couple of years.
We would go out to the old ranches and pitch-fork the dried bones into a dump truck and Mr. Carlson would take them to the RR yard and ship them to Kansas City to be ground up for fertilizer use as one of the ingredients.
I got two bucks a ton and I could do about 4 tons a day. We would start at sun-up and stop at dark. [I would be hard pressed to pitchfork a hundred pounds today].
So see--Buffalo Bones Bill ain't dead after all.
Customer Service
How to handle awkward customers
An award should go to the United Airlines gate agent in Denver for being smart and funny, and making her point, when confronted with a passenger who probably deserved to fly as cargo.
During the final days at Denver's old Stapleton airport, a crowded United flight was canceled.
A single agent was rebooking a long line of inconvenienced travelers. Suddenly an angry passenger pushed his way to the desk. He slapped his ticket down on the counter and said, "I HAVE to be on this flight and it has to be FIRST CLASS."
The agent replied, "I'm sorry sir. I'll be happy to try to help you, but I've got to help these folks first, and I'm sure we'll be able to work something out."
The passenger was unimpressed. He asked loudly, so that the passengers behind him could hear, "Do you have any idea who I am?"
Without hesitating, the gate agent smiled and grabbed her public address microphone. "May I have your attention please?" she began, her voice bellowing throughout the terminal. "We have a passenger here at the gate WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHO HE IS. If anyone can help him find his identity, please come to the gate."
With the folks behind him in line laughing hysterically, the man glared at the United agent, gritted his teeth and swore "(Expletive) you." Without flinching, she smiled and said, "I'm sorry, sir, but you'll have to stand in line for that, too."
The man retreated as the people in the terminal applauded loudly. Although the flight was canceled and people were late, they were no longer angry at United.
Subject: [Fwd: You Got What Kind of Problem?]
Jim P. sent the forwarded message--reminded me of a cartoon I saw.
A fellow was seated at a table in a Cafe.
The waiter says, "I am sorry Sir, your Health Provider won't allow you to order red meat."
We have had more trouble with Aetna Insurance lately. It seems like Yvonne and I have to do all the paperwork for them. We end up sending letters and FAXs and repeating things at least twice. I have learned to form a paragraph in several different ways using various and sundry nouns and verbs.
It seems our culture is losing the ability to communicate on a 'one to one' level. The banks, car dealerships, health providers---even the phone company.
Would you believe that PAC Bell shut off my phone here in San Jose. Turns out the fellow next door was moving and they got his address confused with mine. They called and "warned" me two days before and asked if I really wanted it disconnected--I told the fellow NO. They turned it off anyway.
When I found out, I used the 800 number and ended up talking to someone in Sacramento. I had to use a 916 area code finally instead of the 800. They had no record of the disconnect and no record of me calling. I asked for a new Order hooking me up again. I had to dial a "2" and then select from 4 more numbers. I selected "3" and finally got a real person after dialing another "0". She made a Reconnect Order.
I went back home here in San Jose last nite after work and GUESS what? No phone. Finally thru a series of number punching on my Cell Phone I found a Real Person. This morning I finally have a phone.
I am sending PAC Bell my Cell Phone Charges. (By the way you can't call the 408 611 Repair desk when you are outside the area code on a Cell Phone. My cell is a 702 and I am living in a 408).
Ain't the banks, the phone companies, the Motor Vehicle Dept., etc wonderful?? And Pac Bell is named after the inventor of the phone--Oh! Well!
He is rolling over in his grave I am sure--and I work for a phone company!!
I sure hope our Globalstar HELP Desk will be better than PAC Bell's. We have 13 months to go before worldwide phone service. I think I will retire a second time when that happens.
Fred
Jim Pearce wrote:
And you thought you had problems. Sound familiar?????
In today's HMO environment, WE, the patient, and THEY, the practitioner, look at the urgency of OUR medical problems differently. The divergence of perspective gets worse if the problem drags on for a period of time. However, if you were to stop and think about it, you'd notice most of these difficulties started with the very first phone call you made to get an appointment. From that point on, it was all downhill.
Let me give you an example. Monday, a family member rang up our state certified and HMO funded medical practitioner's number and got the following voice mail "greetings". Any similarity between these and actual voice mail messages we have here at work are purely coincidental.
"Hello! You've reached the offices of your state certified and HMO funded medical practitioner's office." -"If you know the extension of the party you're calling, press 1 NOWWWWWW. Dial it and stop bothering the rest of us." -
"If you wish to speak to a real person, press 2 NOWWWW. You'll be connected to some other phone number selected at random from our local area phone book." -
"If you wish to speak to someone in OUR office, press 3 NOWWWW. We'll make you an appointment for that call." -
"If you wish to speak to a member of our psychic medical staff, press 4 NOWWWWW. Please have your credit card handy and you must be 18 years of age or older to call." -
"If you think having to wait 3 and half years to have your little medical problem solved is too long, press 5 NOWWWW. You'll be connected to other patients who complained about the very same thing and now find their family physician is a proctologist." -
"If you wish to share horror stories friends have told you about someone they knew who had the very same surgery, press 6 NOWWWW. We like to record and compare them with others we have from our own patients." -
"In the event you have surfed the NET and found the Mayo Clinic uses different techniques to treat your problem than we use, press 7 NOWWWW. One of our Shamans will be with you shortly to explain how an eye of a toad and the wing of a bat can cure as well as the current day use of leeches. -
"If you have one of the few medical insurance plans that cover our services, press 8 NOWWWW. We want to know how that's possible." -
"If you desire to know how successful our staff deems your surgery will be, press 9 NOWWWW. You'll be connected with the Tropicana Hotel and Casino Sports Book for the latest odds on YOUR recovery." -
"If you wish to leave a message, press 0 NOWWWW. Sorry! Your plan does not cover leaving messages."
Anyway, referrals are in place, tests to determine the scope of the problem have been completed and the surgery is now scheduled for mid-May. I'll be taking a couple days off and putting my cooking and house cleaning skills to work. I am having some difficulty getting started though. Does anyone know what wine can be served with fried bologna sandwiches and canned chili? Then, if I decided to whip up some Jell-O, where do you think the skillet is stored? Is Healthy Choice one of the four main food groups or is it Hungry Man? You actually CLEAN bathrooms? With what brush?
Kings and Things
We were talking at the table and someone asked how I became interested in Kings and Queens. To make a short story longer:
During the Great Depression my Dad got a job with the Railroad in Wyoming. He went on ahead and a few weeks later my Mom and I came by train--since he was an employee now--we got a RR pass.
The two of us stayed with Dad thru the Summer of 1934, but Mom didn't think I could take the Winter. We lived at Thayer Junction, WY at about the 7000 foot level. Thayer Junction is no longer a town. It is still there. There is a sign at the junction of the two RR lines--one goes east and west and the other rails head north to the coal mines. The RR dug its own coal in those days.
The next year Dad came and got us. We started out in a 1926 Chrysler pulling a trailer made from a Model T Ford. Even now I get goose bumps--what a trip. The roads were dirt and gravel in those days (or mud as the case may be).
Again we stayed the Summer, but the plan was for us all to come back in Sept. The trailer was to bring back what little "rag tag" furniture we had.
My father had answered an ad in the Des Moines Register and Tribune "Groundskeeper-Chauffeur" He bid 18 cents an hour and won.
We lived over the old Livery Stable that had been converted into a 6 car garage. Dad had to wash and polish the cars, cut 7 acres of grass, trim trees, and Caddy for Mr. County. The estate backed up to a golf course.
Before the Depression, Mr. County had owned 56 Banks scattered all over the Mid-West, with the main bank being in Des Moines. At them time my Dad worked for him in 1935 and 1936 he was down to four.
I last heard of him in 1957, retired and living in Laguna Beach, CA. he was in his 90's at the time. I intended on going down and saying "hello"--he passed away before I got a chance.
The main house was three stories with an attic and a full basement--very large. The main ballroom was larger than the footprint of our home in Las Vegas.
One day in late 1935, I was playing in a swing my Dad had tied to a limb of an old elm tree and Mr. County walked up and started talking to me. He had talked to me a little before, but not much. He patted my head and reached into his pocket and gave me three cents.
I thanked him and looked at the coins. There was a bearded gentleman's picture embossed on them. "Who is that?" I asked. King Edward he told me. I was hooked. I still have the three coins. They are from Canada. Later he gave me some half pennies from Canada and also a "half-dime" from the United States.
Have had an interest in Kings and Queens of Europe since about that time. I would not want to be President of the USA, but I would sure like to be King!
Boy would I do some damage in Washington. First off I would move the Throne Room to Las Vegas.
Later message
When I sent out the message with the lines of descent I had forgotten Andrew. Someone asked "What if the Royal Family--Elizabeth, Charles, all the kids, Fergi's kids, Princess Margret, etc. were all on a plane at once and it crashed--
Well it would go back up the line and find the oldest male nephew on Queen Elizabeth's side (of course). If there were none (and I don't think there are--I don't have any of my books with me here in SJ so I have to try and remember). The line would move to the females. I can only think of a grand neice--Katherine. I think she is still alive, She would be 80 something.
If there were none in that line, it would move to Kaiser Wilhelm's line. Wilhelm went into excile at the end of WWI and lived out his life in Holland--d. in 1922 I think. Anyway one of his male grandchildren would be in line. After all Elizabeth's Line is German. She would also be related to the Zsars of Russia thru the German--Katherine the Great. I think the Russian Revolt got rid of all of them. King Juan Carlos would fit in their someplace to. He would be down a round 40th in line for the throne of England.
If you really dug, you could even make a case for the Stuarts of Scotland---somewhere in the 200th for the throne.
The next time I go home to Las Vegas I am going to have to bring a book or two here to San Jose--my memory ain't what it used to be.